Floating plant or harbor for airships and giant flying machines



Oat;v 28 1924. 1,513,591 V w. E. DORR ET AL FLOATII IG' PDANT OR HARBORFOR AIRQHIIIPS AND GIANT FLYING IMG HINES Filed Dec. 21. 1928 45 of temerature and soon.

Patented 28, 192 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILHELM muss: norm, or UEBEBLINGEN-ON-THE-BODENSEE,'AND mmsm A. LEI-I-MANN AND EBERHARD LEMPERTZ, or FRI'EDRICH'SHAFEN-ON-THE-IBODENSEE, GER-ASSIGNOBS 'ro LUFTSCHIFFBAU ZEPPELIN GESELLSCEAI'T MIT 31-:- sonaanx'rnnHAFTUNG, or rnmnmcnsnarnn, nonr'msnn, G RMANY, A Film.

FLOATiNG PLANT-R HARBOR FOR Amsmrs AND GIANT FLYING MACHINES.

Applicationfiled December 21, 1923. Serial! No. 682,130.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, WILHELM ERN's'r Donn,ERNST AUGUST'LEHMANN, and EBER- HARD LEMrER'rz, residing atUeberlingen-on the-Bodensee, .and Friedrichshafen-on-the- Bodensee,Germany, respectively, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin a Floating Plant or Harbor for Airships and Giant Flying Machines, ofwhich the 1 following is a specification.

The invention relates to a floating plant or harbor for airships, whichdiflers from the known floating sheds, carried by a multi-.-

ple of separate pontoons, by the feature that instead of these only onesingle ships hull is employed, forming a unitary supportingconstruction, which extends essentially over the total length of thebase of the shed, and that the deck of the ships hull formssimultaneously the floor of the shed, designed to resist the forcesacting in the horizontal direction. By such an arrangement the advantage.of diminishing the dead weight is obtained, because the ships hullcarrying the shed is engaged everywhere in a nearly equal degree andfurthermore all structures of the construction are compelled alternatelyto absorb all the arts of loads occurring here. Therefore closedcircuits in the distribution of forces within the structures and anextremely great, stiffness of the construction is obtained. Y 7

According to our inventionthe structure in its cross section is not tohave any. flexible joint, so that it resemblesa tube with hollow wallsmaking it float, the upperiinner shell of the walls being taken awaybecause of the outer shell being suflicient to 40 serve for a roof. Thelower inner shell may at the same time serve for a floor. Such-astructure will work up in itself all the stresses that may result ronloads, changes of buoyancy in-its different parts, changes The featurethat it as no flexible joints causes a distribution of all possiblestresses over all mem-- bers of the structure, all of them contributingto its strength, and thereby allowing a very low weight of construction.

In the further pursuance of the idea of our invention itis made ossible,to dip and lift the ships hull by t e arrangement, of

flood chambers combined with pumps, for the purpose of placing'the floorof the shed according to requirement above or below the Water-level.Furthermore propellers may be provided for assisting or substituting forthe action of the wind and for shifting the shed around the anchoringpoint into the direction of the wind. The axles of these propellers aretherefore arranged transversely to the longitudinal axis of the shipshull so that the propellers when being driven effecta rotary movement oftheshed around its anchoring point,

In order that the invention may be readily understood, in the followingspecification a floating harbor-plant will be described with referenceto the annexed drawings, in which Figs. 1 and 2 showcross sections of anairship shed embodyingour invention; Figs. 3 and 4 give a plan-view ofthe arrangement of such sheds on t e water.

The girders of the shed shown in Figs. 1

and 2 comprise two ringlike beams 1 and 4' distanced apart. They may beconnected by' plates, thus forming cross bulkheads, or by suitable stays3. These stays 3 in the longi- 80 tudinal direction of the structureform parts vof longitudinal trusses, which in the lower part of thestructure may be developed into longitudinal bulkheads. The lower partsof the outer rings l bear a' water tight shell, their upper parts areadapted to bear a roof sheeting. The lower parts of the inner rings 4also have a water-tight cover, serving to make watery-tight compartments10 and at the same time serving for a floor.

Propellers 11, driven by motors of any kind, in any-suitable manner areprovided, for assisting the wind to turn the shed around its anchoringpoint 9 into the d1- rection of the air-current.

The constructions of Fig. 1 and of Fig. 2 are alike in their essentialparts, the differ only in the arrangement of the ongitudinal bulkheads;furthermore in Fig. 2 the floor of the shed is shown below thewater-level, so that the airship may be drawn into the shed whileresting at water level.

The shed may be arranged on a pond, es-

pecially made for this purpose, in lfsuch a 105 around one of its endsor around a central point, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, or the shed I maybe located on a greater expanse of members connected with thecross-members water, for instance in a sea basin, and rotatory around ananchoring-point 9. lhe lateral movements of the shed are efiected bymeans of the propellers 10, the axles of which are arranged transverselyto the longitudinal direction of the shed.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis:

A floating shed for airships comprising a tubular structure including a%riesof inner and outer cross members of ring-like shape, disposed inspaced-apart relation, one within the other; longitudinally-extendingand constituting therewith aframework; a covering disposed upon theframework constituting a roof; a shell disposed upon the framework andconstituting a hull; a covering disposed upon the interior of the frame:

work to constitute a floor, the space between the inner and outer crossmembers being enlarged at this portion of the shed; and aninstrumentality connected with the framework and shell in proximity tothis enlarged space to constitute bulkheads and form, with certain otherportions of the shed, a Water-tight compartment.

In testimony whereof we a our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

v WJLLHJELM ERNST DO ERNST A. LEHMANN.

EBERHARD LEMPERTZG Witnesses:

HANS Bnnmnisrnn, E. Wmnn'mn BERG.

